Disclaimer

Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review routinely receives books from Publishers and Authors for review consideration. When in doubt assume the book comes from a Publisher or if you follow my New Procurement posts I usually describe the source of said book. I still buy a lot of books as well.

It is getting to be that time of year where the blogging masses post lists of all stripes. And not one to be left out in the cold I've been keeping track of my favorites as well. I've read more than 100 books this year and reviewed close to 50 of them while only mentioning a few others. Summations are good. They make you reflect on what really worked. My more definitive best of list will be up around the end of the year, but there is plenty to dip into if you feel so emboldened. Without further preamble here are the best, most entertaining, and original books I've read this year in no particular order.

Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Pyr/Tor UK)

The Passage by Justin Cronin (Ballantine)

Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton (Spectra/Tor UK)

City of Ruins by Mark Charan Newton (Tor UK/Spectra)

The Last Page by Anthony Huso (Tor)

Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis (Tor)

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks (Orbit)

Spellwright by Blake Charlton (Tor)

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Tor)

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (Viking)

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu (Pantheon)

Twisted Metal by Tony Ballantyne (Tor UK)

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder (Pyr)

The New Dead edited by Christopher Golden (St. Martins)

Steampunk Reloaded edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon)

Swords & Dark Magic edited by Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders (Eos)

The Clockwork Jungle Book (Shimmer)

Warriors edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardiner Dozois (Tor)

Horns by Joe Hill (Wm Morrow)

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman (Tor)

Kraken by China Mieville (Del Rey)

Dreadnought by Cherie Priest (Tor)

Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes (Pyr)

Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson (Spectra)

Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey (Eos)

Changes by Jim Butcher (Roc)

Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley (Pyr)

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding (Gollancz/Spectra)

The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding (Gollancz/Spectra)

Sleepless by Charlie Huston (Ballantine)

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz/Tor)

Blue and Gold by K. J. Parker (Sub Press)

The Greyfriar by Clay & Susan Griffith (Pyr)

Heartland by Mark Teppo (Night Shade)

Blameless by Gail Carriger (Orbit)

Some Favorites Read This Year That Came Out Prior to 2010:

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (Small Beer)*

Anti-Ice by Stephen Baxter (Harper)

Time and Again by Jack Finney (Touchstone)

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr (Eos)

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett (Riverhead)

Sabriel by Garth Nix (Harper)

Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper (Ace)

My Dead Body by Charlie Huston (Del Rey)

Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)

For those fans of statistics here is the break down by publishers with multiple books on the list excluding the books that came out before 2010**. These numbers leave out the books from before 2010.

The dominance of Tor US at first surprised me, but not after I had a chance to look at the nominees. This list could also be changing as I have a couple 2010 releases I hope to fit in, which is why I wanted to wait until the year is closer to actually ending before committing myself. First and foremost is Ekaterina Sedia's The House of Discarded Dreams, which I'm 1/3 of way through. Already I can tell it at least belongs on this long list.

* This has been out of print for awhile, but Small Beer just reissued it.**Note some books are counted twice if they had different publishers in the US versus UK.*** Note that 4 of Spectra's books have been published in the UK and only one has been official released in the US so far.

Well, I couldn't compare myself to Larry at all. He is a machine when it comes to reading. I think he is close to 400 books read for the year. My wife actually asked me today exactly how many books I've read this year and the truth is I'm not sure. I know it is over 100, but probably not more than 125. Anything can happen with a book once I'm done. Some go in the to review pile, some to friends, and some just disappear into the ether.

One of my goals next year to to keep up the Reading Log, but number all the books starting at 1 and going up so I can see just how many I devour each year.